Globe artichoke is a heirloom vegetable that is delicious to eat. Grow your own artichokes today!

Artichoke plants thrive best in areas with mild winters and cool, foggy summers. In these growing conditions, they are perennials, yielding harvests for up to 5 years. Where winters dish up only a few frosty nights, plants will sometimes overwinter when pruned and mulched. These are typical in zones 8 and 9. In colder regions, artichokes should be treated as annuals, being planted in spring. In humid, subtropical, frost0free zones 10 and 11, artichokes should be planted in fall.

Planting

In zones where artichokes are perennial, select a site that can hold your plants for up to 5 years. Give them room to spread, since mature plants reach 3 to 4 feet tall and up to 4 feet wide. Artichokes thrive in full sun to partial shade. They also need light, fertile, well-drained soil, sandy or loamy soil is ideal. Prepare the soil by working 5 inches of compost into a trench 8 inches deep and equally wide. Artichoke plants can fail in summer droughts and in winter soil that is waterlogged. Avoid this by adding compost to improve your soil’s ability to retain water in summer and drain in winter.

Plant artichoke seedlings atop amended soil. Be sure to space the plants about 4 feet apart. In zones 6 and colder, you can plant artichokes closer together, about 2 to 3 feet apart. Frost will prevent the plant from reaching it’s mature, established size.

After artichokes are established and unfurling new growth, fertilize plants once a month with organic liquid fertilizer. Be sure to keep soil moist throughout the growing season. If you have organic high potassium liquid fertilizer, you can apply it every 2 weeks during periods of active growth to encourage flower buds to form.

Keep weeds out of artichoke beds and give your crops a thick mulch. This is especially important in norther growing regions. Mulch with an organic material like grass clippings, straw, aged manure, or a mixture of all.As buds begin to form, remove mulch, and apply a 4 inch thick layer of compost around each plant, extending from the base of the plant outward 12 inches.

Harvest

Flower buds form in early summer atop tall stems that grow out of the center of the plant. Each stem forms several flower buds, with the top bud ripening first. Harvest buds while they are tight and firm and at least 3 inches in diameter. If buds begin to open, they will lose their tenderness. The lower buds that develop will never become as large as the top bud. Once you have harvested all the buds on a stem, cut the stem to the ground. For large, mature plants, prune the entire plant back by a third to promote a fall harvest.

Ariana Marisolis a contributing staff writer for REALfarmacy.com. She is an avid nature enthusiast, gardener, photographer, writer, hiker, dreamer, and lover of all things sustainable, wild, and free. Ariana strives to bring people closer to their true source, Mother Nature. She graduated The Evergreen State College with an undergraduate degree focusing on Sustainable Design and Environmental Science. Follow her adventures on Instagram.